


and the only thing we know is it's getting dark and we'd better go

by who_won_the_race_back_home



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, two stubborn and awkward turtles learn to make friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-05 06:28:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15164666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/who_won_the_race_back_home/pseuds/who_won_the_race_back_home
Summary: Zari and Ava are both coping poorly with the sudden changes in their lives, and in the quiet hours on the ship, they strike up something that might be called a friendship.





	and the only thing we know is it's getting dark and we'd better go

**Author's Note:**

  * For [falsealarm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/falsealarm/gifts).



> For the prompt: New found friends on the Waverider. Zari shuts herself off a little after Amaya leaves the ship but she finds Ava's awkward energy familiar and comfortable so the two of them strike up a tentative friendship.
> 
> This got done late because I am a Tired Old Man and the excessive heat we've been having on the east coast has shut off my brain. But! This was so much fun to write! I think these two have a great dynamic together and I hope the show gives us more canon interactions between them next season.
> 
> Title from "Drive" by The Gaslight Anthem, a great song about friendship.

It was exactly two weeks after they defeated Mallus that crisis struck again. (No, it wasn’t John and his decapitated dragon head, turns out most of his nonsense wasn’t any more ridiculous than the legends’ normal nonsense, just now anachronisms and anomalys sometimes had more heads or arms than expected, or were made of hell juice, or whatever). Sara had a family emergency, something with her dad that she didn’t go into detail on, just said she had to go back to 2018 and that Ray was in charge. Everyone obviously immediately ignored him.

Zari barely noticed Sara’s absence, she was too busy wallowing over Amaya and binging  chocolate doughnuts with Nate. (Nate took his doughnuts with whiskey, and they sat on the couch in his bunk watching old episodes of Star Trek together until there was a mission or they passed out. They never talked about Amaya. Ever. They rarely talked about anything at all unless it was about coordinating trips to the kitchen).

That is, Zari barely noticed until the night Sara left, and Zari walked into the kitchen and almost directly into Ava. No one on the team was still really sure what to do with her, even though she was clearly on their side now, and she and Sara were figuring out their whole situation. Ava seemed to generally feel the same, she rarely went anywhere on the ship without Sara, and when Sara wasn’t around, Ava most kept to Sara’s bunk. But also, Zari was pretty sure Ava still had an apartment in 2018, so she wasn’t exactly expecting to run face first into her in the galley while Sara was away in Star City.

“Shit, sorry. I-“

“No, no, it’s totally fine,” Ava said, cutting Zari off. She was holding a plate of chicken and roasted asparagus, and Zari realized that it must already be around dinner time. She and Nate had slipped far from anything resembling a normal schedule.

“Cool, yeah. Sorry, just didn’t expect-“

“Right, me to be here.”

“Yeah.”

They stood in awkward silence for several long moments, neither sure what to do.

“Is, uh, Sara back?” Zari asked.

“No, she’s still in 2018.”

“Oh, since you were here I thought-“

“Being at my place is weird right now, so I’m staying in Sara’s room.” Ava drummed her fingers against her plate nervously. “Unless, you guys feel weird having me around without her?”

“No, it’s fine!” Zari said, a little too quickly. “It’s totally fine. Like I said, just wasn’t expecting to almost smack into you. Sorry, I’m keeping you from your food.”

Zari stepped out of the way, and Ava passed with a nod and an attempt at a smile, but it was tight lipped and awkward. The tension dropped from Zari’s shoulders once Ava had left. She didn’t even realizing she had been holding it.

* * *

 

The next day an explosion woke up Zari with a start, and she blindly started grabbing around for her go bag, which wasn’t there. Because she was on the Waverider. She quickly realized the noise had come from the television and that Nate was fast asleep, snoring lightly in his bed. According to the clock it was 5AM, although even at her best, Zari rarely adhered to the arbitrary time the ship kept. Being a an illegal fugitive really messed with your circadian rhythms after a certain point.

Zari turned off the screen and pulled a blanket over Nate. They were out of doughnuts, and they had at least two more seasons of Next Generation to power through, so Zari made her way to the galley, hoping that it was still early enough to not run into anyone. Before she even got to the door, she heard someone muttering angrily, and loudly, to themself in the kitchen.

It was still really weird to see Ava out of her Time Bureau suit, unnerving even. But it did make her seem less like the woman they first met who wanted to throw them all into time jail or whatever, and send Zari back to her 2042 dystopian nightmare. Ava had clearly proven she was on their side now, but still, it was hard to completely throw away that fear.

Seeing her in sweatpants and a long sleeve t-shirt, mashing the touch screen of the fabricator and getting increasingly frustrated certainly helped, though.

“There’s a trick to it,” Zari said. Ava jumped just a bit at Zari’s voice and turned to her, a slightly horrified look on her face at being caught. “Mick spilled, like, a whole six pack on it, and now one part of the screen is all wonky. Even Ray and I can’t figure out how to fix it. You mind?”

Ava shook her head and stepped to the side. Zari punched in a code to give her more manual control over the selection screen and through a roundabout way, managed to finally land on what Ava was looking for. Moments later a bowl of oatmeal appeared.

“Thanks,” Ava said, impressed.

“Yeah, no problem. I can give you the code, if you want?”

Ava tapped at her temple. “Clone brain. I, uh, already memorized it,” she said, trying to sound light and failing miserably.

“Oh. That’s...useful.” Zari regretted it the second the words left her mouth, wincing on the last syllable.

“Yup,” Ava said, taking her breakfast and quickly walking past Zari towards the door.

“Shit. Ava, wait. I’m sorry.” Ava stopped and turned back around. “That was a really stupid thing to say. It’s early and I’m-my brain’s not working yet. Do you want to, I dunno, eat breakfast. Like, together?”

Ava quirked her head, a confused look on her face.

“Dude, I don’t know. You just-you don’t have to be holed up in Sara’s room. Like, you’re scary sometimes, but no one here hates you,” Zari said, lying a little bit. She was pretty sure Mick still hated Ava, but that wasn’t really personal. He hated everyone at least a little.

Ava blinked at her a few times. “Thank you? I think?”

Ava hesitated for a moment, turning her head back towards the door, but eventually she sat down at the table, and waited for Zari to get her food. Of course she was she was the type of person to wait. Scrounging for food back home, and then living on the ship, Zari hadn’t encountered anything resembling manners in a long time. It was endearing.

Zari grabbed her plate of doughnuts and an orange juice from the fabricator and joined Ava.

“Are you really just going to eat doughnuts?” Ava asked between sips of her coffee.

“You know when and where I’m from. Honestly, wouldn’t you eat doughnuts for breakfast every day if you escaped that?”

Ava paused, then pursed her lips and nodded. “Yeah, fair point.”

They ate in silence for a while, and it wasn’t nearly as awkward as Zari imagined it would be. Well, it was still a little awkward, she barely knew Ava, but Zari had gotten used to quiet meals back in Seattle, and sometimes the chaos of mealtime on the Waverider was a little overwhelming. So this was nice.

Suddenly, a very generic ringtone broke the quiet. Both of them jumped just a little at the sound, and Ava scrambled for her phone.

“Sorry, it’s the Bureau.”

Ava excused herself out into the hall, and Zari was left with her doughnuts. She didn’t envy Ava’s job, being in charge of fixing all of time. Although, if anyone had to do it, Ava would certainly have been at the top of her list. Despite somehow bumbling their way through it with only a handful of major disasters, the legends certainly weren’t qualified. But they were more fun. Zari briefly contemplated how uncomfortable and sweaty those Bureau suits must be when Ava came back to the table, apologizing for having to take the call.

“Have you been going back to 2018 for work this whole time?” Zari asked.

“I’ve really just been going back for meetings that have to be in person. I’m the boss, I guess no one can really tell me I can’t,” Ava said, without any real conviction in her voice. “And I have to go back to feed my cat. Gary would normally take care of him, but he’s off fucking John fucking Constantine in a demon dimension or whatever.” The contempt Ava had for John was impressive, if nothing else. But that wasn’t the important part.

“Wait, you have a cat?”

Ava slid her phone over to Zari. The background of her lock screen was a very large, very grumpy looking orange cat.

“No offense, but that cat looks like an asshole.”

Finally, Ava cracked a smile. “Oh, he is. Hates everyone but me and sometimes Gary. He despises Sara.”

Zari laughed, picturing Sara in a stand-off with a giant, aloof cat. “That’s fantastic. What’s his name?”

“Dave.”

That made Zari laugh even harder, now picturing Sara in a stand-off with a cat named Dave. Ava chuckled along with her, the tension finally feeling like it had broken.

* * *

“Do you want to go to the Mount St. Helens eruption?” Ava asked while they ate breakfast one morning, completely unprompted.

It had been a few weeks since Ava had moved onto the Waverider permanently, although it had been all but a formality at that point. The only real difference now was that Dave the cat staked a claim to the desk chair in the library and no one was brave enough to try and take it back from him. They just wheeled in another one from Sara’s office. Frequently, Nate would be caught sitting side by side with Dave, petting him absentmindedly while pouring over some ancient text or another. Gideon worked overtime making enough allergy medication for Ray.

Zari and Ava continued eating early breakfasts, or late dinners, or lunch at 7PM together. Time in Star City 2018 and the ship wasn’t often synced up, so there’d be days where Ava would have to go into the office at two in the morning Waverider Standard Time. And Zari’s internal clock was so screwy that there often wasn’t anyone else to eat with unless it was family dinner night.

It was surprisingly nice. Everyone else on the ship except Sara was still intimidated by Ava, even if they were significantly less wary by this point. (One time in a mission briefing, Ava slyly referenced an embarrassing story Zari had told about her childhood, in confidence, and Zari without hesitating just told her to fuck off. Nate and Ray completely froze, eyes wide, while Sara burst out laughing).

“Wait, really?” Zari tried to contain her excitement, but this had been her dream since she first got on the Waverider. “What happened to time travel rules and regulations?”

“The Bureau found an anachronism. Mary Shelley is currently wandering around 1980 Portland, although I’m not sure if she’s already written Frankenstein yet.”

“Is this one of those anachronisms that’s ironically relevant in some way?”

“Mary Shelley first began writing Frankenstein during ‘The Year Without Summer.’ An Indonesian volcano erupted in 1815, depressing temperatures globally. Ms. Shelley was on a summer holiday and unable to enjoy outdoor activities, and her compatriots suggested a ghost story contest,” Gideon chimed from overhead. “She began working on the story that would become Frankenstein during that time.”

“So, yes,” Zari said.

“We haven’t really figured that whole thing out yet,” Ava said, a little frustrated. “But it’s a level one, you and I can fix it no problem.”

“What about everyone else?” Zari asked, then realized just as quickly. “Right, we’re a mess.”

“We can portal there and no one here will have to know.”

“Excuse me, I know everything,” Sara said over the comms.

“How did you-?” Ava asked, bewildered.

“I just told you, I know everything,” Sara said. “But go on and have fun kids. It’s good that you’re making friends.”

“I-”Ava began, unsure how to respond.

“Sometimes it’s is just easier this way.” Zari said, shutting off her earpiece entirely. “Why are you even taking care of this? Don’t you have, like, Gary to do it?”

“Over the past couple months I’ve realized if you don’t do fun stuff once in a while you’ll go insane. We could both probably use the distraction,” Ava said. “Plus you said you really wanted to that one time, and then a bunch of Mallus bullshit got in the way. Two birds, one stone.”

“Even your nice gestures are efficient.”

“I just-I wanted to say thank you. For this.” Ava gestured to their empty plates. “It’s nice. I’ve never had very many friends outside of work, and really then it’s just Gary. It feels, I don’t know, normal.”

Both of them were far from what Zari would call sentimental, but Ava was right. It was nice, and normal, and they probably both needed it more than they would ever admit out loud.

“Yeah,” Zari said, nodding and leaving it at that. “Let’s go catch a lost goth.”

Zari threw their dishes in the sink while Ava opened a portal. In the distance, they could see a huge plume of smoke rising.

“Awesome,” Zari said, turning to Ava, who smiled and gestured for Zari to go first through the portal.

**Author's Note:**

> Dave the cat is my favorite headcanon for this very silly show, and he is the brainchild of [swashbucklery.](http://swashbucklery.tumblr.com)
> 
> You can also find me over on [tumblr.](http://angrypedestrian.tumblr.com)


End file.
